String Quartet No 1 in C minor, Op 2
String Quartet No 2, Op 10
Intermezzo for String Trio
Gavotte


'If I were to name the composer whose works are the most perfect embodiment of the Hungarian spirit, I would answer, Kodály' said Béla Bartók of his friend and fellow campaigner for a definition of a national musical identity.

The Dante Quartet give us a glimpse of Kodály’s rapid stylistic development in these crisply defined performances. The charming Intermezzo from 1905 shows the influence of Vienna still apparent in the young composer, but by 1908 he was finding his true voice with the pungent, folk song-inspired first quartet, played here with unapologetic vigour by the Dantes.

Quartet No 2 combines the pentatonic influence of Debussy with more than a dash of Magyar pepper, the Dantes bringing the tumult of the finale to a gloriously rumbustious close'.

Stephen Pritchard, The Guardian